Formative Assessment

Given below is a list of activities for Formative Assessment. A wide variety of activities
have been given keeping in mind the fact that the students in a classroom have multiple
intelligences. You could use them to assess the understanding of the students either at
the end of the chapter, or at the end of each section.
• Map work: Ask the students to look into an atlas to complete the activity.
• Chart work: The students can either draw or paste the weather report on a chart and
write the summary to complete the activity.
• Role play: Complete the activity on page 42.
• Scrap book: The students can show the clothes, food, houses and occupation of the
people of different states in India.
• Peer and self-assessment: Use the fill in the blanks, true and false and MCQs on pages
43 and 44 for peer and self-assessment.

HOTS
The HOTS question can be discussed in class.

Life skills
Ask the students to complete the activity and display their work in class. They have to
explain how their instrument works.

Value-based question
Ask the students to discuss the answers for the value-based question.
Follow-up • Find out the different weather instruments used for measuring changes in the weather.

Answer key for the exercises in the lesson

Exercises for Summative Assessment 2. It is daily 2. It is the aggregate

I. Fill in the blanks. average record of atmospheric
1. Temperature, atmospheric pressure, of atmospheric temperature,
humidity and rainfall control weather and temperature, atmospheric
climate. atmospheric pressure, and rainfall
pressure, and rainfall over a very large area
2. Sunlight strikes the ground obliquely at
over a small area on and over a long time
higher latitudes.
a daily basis. period.
3. Conduction is the passing of energy from
3. Weather changes 3. Climate does not
one body to another through direct contact.
every day. usually change much.
4. The Earth radiates energy in the form of
4. Described as hot, 4. Described as
infrared rays.
cold, sunny, cloudy, equable, extreme,
II. Distinguish between the following terms. windy, calm, wet, tropical, temperate,
1. Weather and climate dry, etc. etc.
Weather Climate 2. Heat and temperature
1. Weather is the 1. Climate is the average Heat is a form of energy while temperature
general atmospheric weather conditions indicates the hotness or coldness of a
condition of a place of a place over a long substance.
in one day. period of time.
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 3. Convection and advection
When air comes in contact with the heated
surface of the Earth, it gets heated too.
Heated air, being lighter than cold air, starts
to rise. Cold air being heavier, settles down,
taking the place of rising warm air. The warm
air on reaching a certain height becomes cold
and heavy once more and starts sinking. The
vertical transfer of heat through rising warm
air and sinking cold air is called convection.
Advection is the transfer of heat from one
region to the other. When warm winds mix
with the cooler winds, heat energy is passed
on from the warmer winds to the cooler
winds through the process of advection.
Advection usually involves the large-scale
horizontal transfer of energy.
4. Latitude and altitude
Lines of latitude are imaginary lines that run
east-to-west on the surface of the Earth.
Latitude is an angular measure in degrees
of a place north or south of the equator. It
ranges from 0° at the equator (low latitude)
to 90º at the poles. The Sun’s rays strikes the
surface of the earth at different angles from
the equator (0º) to the poles (90º). While the
equatorial regions get the vertical rays of the
Sun, the polar regions get the slanting rays
of the Sun. This makes the equatorial regions
warmer than the polar regions. Altitude
refers to height (vertical distance) of a place
from the mean sea level. The higher the
altitude lower will be the temperature. In
the troposphere the temperature decreases
at the rate of 1° C for every 160 m ascent.
The lapse rate is responsible for people in
the plains choosing to go to the hills during
summer as it is cooler.
III. True or false?
1. Incoming solar radiation is absorbed fully by
the atmosphere. (F)
2. Dense air lets more heat escape than thin air.
(F)
3. Prevailing winds always blow from hot to
cold regions. (T)
4. Urban centres trap heat. (T)
IV. Answer the following questions.
1. How is the Earth’s atmosphere heated?
Discuss in detail.
The Earth’s atmosphere does not get heated
directly by the heat of the Sun. Since the
atmosphere is largely made up of gases,
most of the solar radiation passes through
it to the Earth. The Earth being solid gets
heated. The Earth, in turn, causes the
atmosphere to be heated. The heating of the
atmosphere takes place through convection,
conduction, radiation and advection. The
vertical transfer of heat through rising warm
air and sinking cold air is called convection
and the currents of moving air formed thus
are called convection currents. Massive
convection currents are formed over the
Earth, which transfer heat from the Earth
to the upper parts of the atmosphere.
Conduction is the passing of energy from
one body to another when they are in direct
contact, through collisions between the
molecules of the two bodies. Conduction is
one of the ways that energy is transferred
from the Earth’s surface to the air. Thus,
heat is passed from the warmer Earth to the
cooler air. Radiation is energy transmitted
from one body to another in the form of rays
or waves. The Earth absorbs heat from the
Sun; it then gives off this heat in the form
of infrared rays, which are absorbed by
the atmosphere and heat it up. Advection
is the transfer of heat from one region to
the other. When warm winds mix with the
cooler winds, heat energy is passed from the
warmer winds to the cooler winds through
the process of advection. Advection usually
involves the large-scale horizontal transfer of
energy.
2. What is the effect of latitude on
temperature?
The Sun’s rays strikes the surface of the earth
at different angles from the equator (0º) to
the poles (90º). While the Equatorial regions
get the vertical rays of the Sun (intensely
heats smaller area), the Polar Regions get the
oblique rays of the Sun (heat is distributed
over larger area). So, the heating provided
by the same amount of sunlight is more in
the equatorial region and much lesser in the
higher latitudes. Hence, the temperature
decreases sharply towards the poles.
3. How does the altitude of a place affect its
temperature?
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 The temperature of a place decreases with
an increase in altitude. The temperature
decreases at the rate of 1ºC for every 160 m
ascent. This happens because air is densest
near the ground and thins rapidly with
height. The denser the air, the more is the
heat that is trapped. The thinner the air, the
more is the heat that escapes. So more the
altitude of a place, the colder it will be.
4. How does the sea regulate the temperature
of coastal regions? Add a note on ocean
currents.
During daytime, along the coastal belts the
land will get heated faster and the oceans
take long to heat up, but once heated take
longer to cool down. So, when the coastal
areas heat up, winds from the sea cool it,
and when the coastal areas cool down, heat
is transferred from the still warm oceans to
the land. Ocean currents are rivers of hot
or cold water that flow within the oceans.
Winds that blow over hot ocean currents
get heated and carry that heat onto the land
they blow over, raising the temperature of
the coast there. Similarly, winds that blow
Answer key for the worksheet
I. 1. energy 2. Advection 3. Colder 4. Rises;
settles down 5. decreases 6. convection
II. 1. e; 2. d; 3. a; 4. b; 5. c
III. 1. d; 2. a; 3. b; 4. c; 5. b; 6. b
IV. 1. True 2. False 3. False
V. 1. Coastal areas experience the moderating
effect of the sea. Land gets heated faster
than the sea but also cools down faster.
The oceans take a longer time to heat up
onto land after passing over cold currents
lower the temperature of that coastal region.
5. What are Prevailing Winds? How are they
formed?
Prevailing winds are planetary winds that are
caused by the formation of giant convection
cells over the Earth. Prevailing winds blow
from the hot regions of the Earth, like the
tropics, to the cold areas of the Earth, like
the temperate or polar regions, and from the
cold areas back to the hotter regions. Winds
from warm regions increase the temperature
of the cold places they blow into, and winds
from cold regions reduce the temperature of
the hot places they blow into.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. c & d 2.b 3.c 4.b 5.c
Value-based question
• Being dedicated
• Being determined
• Being helpful and compassionate
• Being courageous in the face of threat to
one’s life
and cool down. So when the coastal areas
heat up during day time winds from the
sea cool it and when the coastal areas cool
down at night the heat is transferred from
the still warm oceans to the land, warming
it. Places in the interior are far removed
from the moderating influence of sea so
they experience very hot summers and cold
winters.
2. Planetary winds blow from hot regions to into and the winds from cold regions reduce
the cold areas of the Earth and back again. the temperature of the hot places they blow
The winds from the warm regions increase into.
the temperature of the cold places they blow

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